Current methods for tracking three-dimensional structures and capturing their images using even the most advanced systems require substantial human effort, both in terms of time and skill, are prone to operator error and lack uniformity. These shortcomings of the data acquisition activity limit the effectiveness and efficiency of the outcomes severely. For example, in developing bright-field images, the operator collects images at pre-determined time points (e.g., every 48 hours) and analyzes them visually to make comparative determinations. The experimenter observes the objects, chooses targets within a region of interest, and focuses the device on the vertical plane desired. In addition to a significant human presence, this process requires manually tracking and re-focusing the microscope possibly hundreds of times at each session. New and different positioning of the microscope and levels of focus are needed as the morphology and shape related changes over time. In FIG. 1, an example for the need in tracking and re-focusing a microscope is illustrated. A cluster of cancer cells of the breast cancer cell line MCF7 is shown in the left-most pane in FIG. 1. As in typical experiments conducted in cancer biology, the MCF7 cells were placed into a three-dimensional matrigel to be observed over time. The middle pane displays the cells after 5 hours, at which time this cluster moved within the matrigel and became slightly blurred. After 10 hours, as shown in the right-most pane in FIG. 1, the microscope lost its focus on this cell cluster. In addition, the cell cluster moved out of the center of the field of view. Hence, a microscope guiding system to automatically track the location of this cell cluster and keep its image on microscope on focus will be beneficial to the practitioners of such biology experiments.
Unfortunately, the tracking and auto-focus features of even the most modern information capturing devices cannot alleviate the manual operator input in focusing in a three-dimensional environment. As of today, there are no commercially available software packages for efficient tracking and auto-focusing of three-dimensional structures. For example, a current microscope from General Electric (GE) uses the autofocus feature which is very limited. In this example, the microscope set the focal plane at the brightest point in a well full of biological material. This may not necessarily be the best focal plane since most of the material may have less brightness but containing the most useful information. The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.